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Vegetarian Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup with Lime

Vegetarian Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup with Lime tastes great when you need some healthy comfort food! And this tasty soup is meatless and gluten-free.

My sister Valerie thinks the week between Christmas and New Year's is the best part of the holiday season,. She loves it when the rush of Christmas is over but kids are home from school and there's a little extra time to hang out with the family. I enjoyed Christmas day at her house, watching the kids open their gifts and indulging in quite a bit of holiday food.

Now it's back-to-reality for me, and this Vegetarian Black Bean and Sweet Potato Soup with Lime seems perfect after a few days of indulgent eating. It's light enough to help you recover from holiday food overload, easy enough that you don't need much time in the kitchen, and still warm and comforting if you're in a part of the world where the weather is cold.

Heat olive oil in a heavy soup pot, then saute onions for 6-8 minutes, or until they're just starting to brown. Then add minced garlic, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground fennel, and black pepper and saute about 1-2 minutes more.

While onions are cooking, chop up one large sweet potato into pieces. (If the sweet potato isn't that big I would use two; I wouldn't have minded more sweet potato in this.)

Rinse 2 cans black beans until no more foam appears, then let the beans drain.

When onions and spices have been sauteed, add vegetable (or chicken) stock, black beans, and sweet potatoes to the soup pot, along with salt to taste.

Let cook about 30 minutes, or until sweet potatoes are falling-apart tender.

Use a slotted spoon to remove 3 cups of sweet potatoes and beans.

Then use an immersion blender or regular blender to puree the remaining soup. (Be very careful if you do this in a regular blender!)

Add the reserved beans and sweet potatoes back into the soup and simmer about 15 minutes more. Taste to see if you want more salt, then add the lime juice and simmer for 5 more minutes. Serve hot, with a dollop of fat free Greek yogurt or sour cream.

While onions are cooking, peel and dice sweet potato and rinse beans until no more foam appears, then drain. After onions and spice mixture have been sauteed, add the diced sweet potatoes, black beans, and vegetable or chicken stock to the soup pot, along with salt to taste. Let soup simmer on medium-low heat for about 30 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are falling-apart tender. (There will be some foam from the beans that rises to the top during cooking; just skim off with a large spoon or stock skimmer.)

When sweet potatoes are tender, use a slotted spoon to remove 3 cups of beans and sweet potatoes; then use an immersion blender or regular blender to puree the remaining soup. (Be very careful with the hot soup if using a regular blender; fill the blender container only about 3/4 full and hold the lid on the blender with a towel or hot pad draped over the lid.)

Add the reserved sweet potatoes and beans back into the soup and simmer about 15 minutes more. Taste to see if you want to add more salt; then add the lime juice and simmer about 5 minutes more.

Serve hot, with a dollop of fat free Greek yogurt or light sour cream. If desired you can serve with lime wedges so people who want to can squeeze more lime juice into their soup.

This low-glycemic soup would be approved for phase 2 or 3 of the South Beach Diet, due to the sweet potatoes. It would be recommended to use fat-free Greek yogurt or light sour cream to keep this South Beach diet friendly.

I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight partly so I wouldn't have to count calories, carbs, points, or fat grams, but if you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you. Or if you're a member of Yummly, you can use the Yum button on my site to save the recipe and see the nutritional information there.

More Vegetarian Soups with Black Beans:
(Recipes from other blogs may not always be South Beach Diet friendly; check ingredients.)

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Your timing is perfect! I was just searching your site last night for THIS soup! I wanted something light, yet spicy... using what I had on-hand. I made up my own black bean + sweet potato soup (a favorite combination of mine). I just mashed mine a bit by hand, but will try the immersion blender next time.

Hi Kalyn,Hope you enjoyed your holidays. This soup sounds delicious. We must have been on the same wavelength as I just made a turkey black bean chili with sweet potatoes, inspired by chili recipes by you and other food bloggers.

This soup looks wonderful, Kalyn! I even have all the ingredients. :-) My immersion blender just died over the holidays though. I tried using a regular blender and it did not go well, so this recipe will get me to the store sooner than later. ;-)

So glad you had a great Christmas! I used to dislike the time after Christmas, but now find I enjoy it, too. Have a wonderful New Year, Kalyn!

Very nice soup, perfect for the kind of weather we've been having. I also thought about using butternut squash instead of sweet potato. I have to start using the squashes in my stash. I am glad you had a nice Christmas.

I just finished the soup using my food processor and it worked fine to puree. It is delicious, thank you for posting. I try to follow my own version of WW, South Beach healthy eating and this works in both of those areas. My husband is a big soup fan as well and he loves this, it will become one I use in the future, so easy to get to the table!

Kalyn, I made this soup today (in 30/86 degree weather and terrible humidity) and it was incredible! I love sweet potato and black beans but I have never had them together or in a soup. It made a wonderful lunch, thank you so much for posting the recipe.

I just found your blog and I love it! I made this soup for dinner last night and it was delicious! The combination of flavors was so good! It was super easy and it tasted great. I am excited to try other recipes. Thanks for giving me new cooking ideas - and healthy ones too!!

I've been reading your blog for awhile but this is the first recipe I've tried and the soup is incredible. Easy to make and the lime adds a bright note that brings the whole thing to another level. I used a vegan sour cream and it was delish! Thanks for an inspiring blog and a great winter soup. Happy New Year!

Kalyn, This soup was A-MAZING! My husband and I made it (well, I cut up all the sweet potatoes, onions & drained & rinsed the black beans and my husband cooked it) for a group of 7 for a little New Years get together. Everyone was impressed...including 2 VEGANS! (No sour cream for them). Huge accolades to you for an awesome recipe.

What a delicious soup! I tasted it before adding the lime and then after - wow! The lime just transforms the soup. I'm thinking of a couple of alterations - maybe making the whole thing as is, pureeing the entire thing, and then adding two more cans of black beans. I'll let you know how it turns out.

As always, thank you so much for your blog. It is my go-to for healthy recipes and I read it every day. Have a wonderful new year!

Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I've been wanting to make a no meat thick soup for days now and my husband and I had sweet potatoes, black , and Google :). Well, we made some additional modifications based on some -about-to-go-bad- red bell peppers and only one can of black beans, we used a can of dark red kidney beans instead (oh and no fennel, we're not fans.) It's DELICIOUS!!! Also, we used the blender and it worked perfectly! Thank you again!

Made this soup tonight and it was fantastic! I added a little heat (for my hubby) by adding some adobo sauce (from a can of chipotles in adobo) to the sour cream and it added a nice smokey flavor. Topped with cilantro, too! Excellent, as always, Kalyn!

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